Three Days Grace performing at VBC Arena Tuesday night

Three Days Grace (pictured), Chevelle and Adelitas Way will play the Von Braun Center Tuesday night.HUNTSVILLE, AL. - When Three Days Grace finally returned home in 2008 after five years on the road, the guys got a sobering dose of reality, far-flung from the cheering crowds and rock star lifestyle.

Bassist Brad Waist found out his young son was diagnosed with cancer.

Guitarist Barry Stock, lead singer Adam Gontier and drummer Neil Sanderson also faced various issues, including death, betrayal and illness.

The good news is they all found ways to deal with the adversity and transferred their emotions and passion onto their latest album, "Life Starts Now." The Toronto-based group is performing Tuesday night at the Von Braun Center Arena with Chevelle and Adelita's Way, starting at 7 p.m.

"We all personally had to go through a lot of things the last few years," Stock said in a phone interview. "The album ended up being a venting tool, dealing with the hand you're dealt."We went through some dark places, and out of that came a little more positive edge. We've tried to take sad things and make it happy."

His bandmates agree, saying the title of the album reflects what it means to still be alive after hitting rock bottom.

"The new album is basically a commentary on the last couple years of our lives," Sanderson said. "Things have been fairly traumatic for more than one of us. We've all had to confront death on a few different levels, and we've had family go through some health-related things."

"The events of the past few years have made us more aware of what life really can be," Gontier said. "So the album is about taking the situation that you're in, no matter how bad it feels, and making the best of it. Lyrically, most of the songs are based around that idea."

Several tracks address powerful feelings of loss - whether through betrayal on "Bitter Taste" and "Last To Know" - or death on "World So Cold" and "Without You." There's also the more upbeat "The Good Life" and fiery first single "Break."

The band also got inspiration for "Life Starts Now" from classic rock.

"Before we went into the studio, we'd listen to classic rock records by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, just to remember the sounds that we loved while we were growing up," Stock said. "We wanted to make our album sound very real, raw and larger than life, like those old records do.

"That's what the classic '70s music is like - slightly pitchy where they slow it down and speed it up, a living, breathing thing. We're not trying to sound like them, but the album has this organic, real feel to it. It's like jamming with those guys."